Standards of service

Over the weekend, I welcomed a group of motor enthusiasts to the hotel. Being their first trip here, I met them at the Sungai Buloh R & R to lead them. It was an interesting drive as I was handed a walkie and the convey didn't realise I could hear their whole conversation about me! Hahaha :D the reaction when they found out was priceless! The weather was against us, it was raining cats and dogs but we trudged on to our destination.

Individually marked bays ensured parking for all cars. We wanted to ensure a quick and smooth check in as they had been on the road for the last 9 to 10 hours. The ladies were excited as expressions of 'Ooohhhssss' and 'Aaaahhhhhh' and 'Woooooooow' were heard as soon as they walked into their rooms. Until then, I had a smile plastered on my face as everything had gone according to plan and my promise of service had lived up to their expectations.

Unfortunately, it only takes one fallen card to crash the whole house of cards. Someone made a mistake and one of my guests was given an occupied room. All hell broke loose when he opened the door and saw someone in the room. As my colleague was conveniently on leave, I was on the receiving end of a bazooka, loud enough for the whole lobby to hear. There is a constant struggle between sales and operations and it is at times like this that you feel most disappointed by your team.

The guest had every right to be angry. I would too if the same had happened to me. I apologised profusely and immediately escorted him to the correct room. This is a classic case of travel trauma. Being on the road for over 8 hours, tired, driving through bad weather and hungry will make any person edgy. The main priority is to get into a room and rest, not to find someone else in the room.

It was a painful experience but I'm glad that I managed to salvage the situation while they were here. They will be back and we will not fail this time. Did I make someone's head roll over this? Hell yeah! I have my own set of expectations of standards of service so you better suck it up and deliver to our guests.

We will change and improve the standards of service and staff mentality, that's a promise. When the fish stinks, it stinks from the head. Change comes from the top and I will knock as many times as I need to get my message across.

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